More than six years have elapsed since Dr. Oliver S. Ormsby and the writer instituted intraspinal therapy in our cases of neurosyphilis. Sufficient time, therefore, has passed to justify a survey of the clinical and serologic results obtained by this form of treatment.
LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECT
Many criticisms, notably those of Sachs1 and of Dercum,2 have been directed against intraspinal therapy on the ground that no clinical results can be obtained by the introduction of arsphenamized serum into the spinal canal, because it can be demonstrated experimentally that substances injected subdurally cannot penetrate the cortex of the brain, and that changes in the spinal tissue are beyond the reach of remedies in solution in the spinal fluid. Sachs firmly believes that sufficiently intensive intravenous medication will accomplish all that intraspinal therapy will accomplish. That arsenic appears in appreciable quantities in the fluid after intravenous injections of arsphenamin